Courier and Printing Franchise Gives Award to Brothers-in-Law

A company founded inside an internet cafe has been named Mail Box Etc’s (MBE) Franchise of the Year.

Franchisees Murli Mulchandani and Rikesh Nichani, who are brothers-in-law as well as business partners, were presented with the award at the courier and printing franchise’s national conference.

They set up KKJ Ltd in January 2002 on The Strand in London.

A year later they opened a second outlet in Shepherds Market, Mayfair and are now looking for third site.

Murli and Rikesh said:

“We are very happy to receive this award and we would like to say thank you to MBE for all their support. We hope the network will continue to go from strength to strength and we look forward to being part of that growth.”

Before joining MBE, Murli headed a company that imported and distributed children’s wear and Rikesh worked in the IT industry.

They were looking for a business where they could work together and favoured franchising because it is a safer route to self-employment than starting a venture from scratch.

They visited a franchise exhibition in London to see what was offer and to meet franchisors face to face.

“There were many different opportunities but none really appealed until we met MBE,” Murli said.

“We particularly liked the combination and variety of MBE’s different services and also we struck a real rapport with the people we met.

“We knew that MBE’s services meet a genuine need and since we opened our first centre we have discovered that the demand is escalating, especially for courier services and mailbox rental.”

Unique in UK franchising, MBE offers high street and business-to-business services such as parcel packing and delivery all over the world, mailbox rental, digital copying, document finishing services, stationery, office supplies and online facilities.

The award-winning franchisees were chosen from MBE’s network of over 100 High Street ‘one-stop-shops’ across the UK and Ireland.

The UK arm of the company is part of a global network of almost 6,000 outlets.